Ramaphosa: Youth unemployment is SA’s defining post-apartheid challenge

By Lebone Rodah Mosima

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that youth unemployment had become South Africa’s defining post-apartheid challenge, as the country marked 50 years since the 1976 Soweto uprising.

Speaking at the national Youth Day commemoration at the FNB Stadium precinct in Johannesburg, Ramaphosa said South Africa had made significant gains since apartheid, including expanded access to education, higher education funding and public employment programmes.

But he said the central challenge was whether those gains were translating into jobs, skills and dignity for young people.

“The question before us today is not whether young people have the courage to change South Africa. The youth of 1976 answered that question,” Ramaphosa said. “The question before us is whether South Africa is doing enough to create opportunities worthy of their sacrifice.”

Youth Day marks the anniversary of June 16, 1976, when schoolchildren in Soweto marched against apartheid education and the